3G hits San Francisco

Russell Beattie describes the new AT&T Wireless 3G services that were just launched. Most attractive is the $24.95 a month unlimited data feature, particularly when it seems that 256kbps is available.

But Russ says that he’s connecting his computer to the net via his A845. Reading the small print of the UMTS Plan there is:

Tethering data usage is not included in the $24.99 Unlimited mMode plan. Unlimited service only applies to email, Internet and intranet access on a UMTS phone. Connection to another device via cable, Bluetooth?, or infrared will be charged $0.001/KB.

This means that Russ should be paying for data relayed to his computer. Does AT&T Wireless actually have any way of finding out whether a user is doing this? If not, it doesn’t seem that they’ll be able to enforce the limit.